Improvement in feathering paddle-wheels



UNITED STATES @PATENT OFFICE0 HARVEY LULL, OE IIOBOKEN, NEV JERSEY.

IMPROVEMENT IN FEATHERING PADDLE-WHEELS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 14,920, dated lllay`20, 1856.

T0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HARVEY LULL, of Hoboken, county of Hudson, and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Paddle-Theels for Propelling Vessels, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description,reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in which- Figure l is an elevation of the outer face of the Wheel; Fig. 2, an elevation of the wheel from inboard, and Fig. 3 an elevation of the same face of the wheel with the gearing removed.

The same letters indica-te like parts in all the figures.

In my said improved paddle-Wheeleach paddle is on a shaft with journals on the ends fitted to turn in boxes near the arms or disks of the wheel, so that the said paddles may rotate on their axes as they revolve about the axis of the paddle-wheel, so that when passing the vertical plane of the wheel the plane of the paddle shall be in or nearly in that plane; and my said invention consists in imparting to the paddles as they revolve about the axis of the paddle-wheel a rotary motion on their own axes, so that they shall make one entire rotation on their own axes during two revolutions about the axes of the paddle-wheel, that their planes may be horizontal when passing over the shaft of the wheel and gradually changed and coincide with the vertical plane of the axis of the wheel when passing it below the shaft, and in passing around to the top gradually change to become horizontal at top by combining with the paddles a cog- Wheel eccentric to the paddle-Wheel, the cogs of which engage the cogs of pinions on the axles of the paddles, the form of which pinions is determined by the eccentricity of the cog-wheel and the rotation of the paddles on their own axes once as they revolve twice about the axes of the paddle-wheel.

In the accompanying drawings, c represents a paddle-Wheel shaft with radial arms b near one end, as in the usual inode of constructing paddle-Wheels, and with a disk c at a distance from the arms equal to the length'of the intended paddles. In the arms b and the disk c are mounted suitable boxes, in which turn the journals on the ends of the shafts d of the several paddles e, so that each paddle can tral hole or eye is of sufficient diameter, notwithstanding its eccentricity, to permit the paddle-wheel shaft to pass through it, and it is tted to turn on a journal-like projection h on the side of the cap-box t of the inner journal of the paddle-Wheel shaft, by which it is kept in its eccentric position.

As the axes of all the paddles are at equal distances from the axis of the paddle-Wheel and the cog-wheei g is eccentric thereto and its cogs mesh into the pinions of all the paddles, it follows that the pinions cannot be round. The paddles make one ent-ire rotation on their own axes in two revolutions about the axis of the wheel, and therefore half arotatiou in one revolution of the wheel. The planes of the paddles are vertical in passing below t-he axis of the paddle-wheel shaft, so as to coincide with the vertical plane thereof, or nearly so, and horizontal when passing the vertical plane of the axis of the wheel above the shaft, so that in the semi-revolution` of the Wheel each paddle rotates on its axis onequarter of a circle and in the other half-revolution of the wheel the other quarter, the paddles reversing sides for every revolution about the axes of the wheel. This requires the pinions on the paddle-shafts to be of a somewhat elliptical shape, de terminedlby the distance of the axis of each paddle from the axis of the cog-wheel g at every part of the revolution about the axis of the paddle-Wheel. Thus the shortest radius of the pinion is at right angles to the plane of the paddle, because the plane of the paddle is at right angles to the vertical plane of the axis of 'the paddle-Wheel, and the axis of the eccentric Wheel is in this plane and above the axis of the paddle-wheel, and so the longest radius of the pinion is in the plane of the paddle, for the reason that the plane of the paddle coincides with the vertical plane of the axis of the Wheel when the paddle passes below the axes of the wheela and the longest radius will be as much longer than the shortest as the extent of the eccentrieity of the cog-wheel g. In this Way it will be seen that the form ot' the pinions is determined by the eccentrieity of the cog-wheel g to the paddle-Wheel and the revolution of the axis of each paddle twice about the axis of the paddle-Wheel and the revolution of the paddle onee on its own axis in the same space ot time, these motions and the pitch-line of and the slip of the paddle, that the variation of the dip of the paddles may not materially affect the propelling action on the Vessel; but I am not aware that the motion herein specified has ever been imparted to the paddles by a mechanism substantially like that herein specified and invented by lne.

lVhat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

Imparting` to the paddles of paddle-Wheels a rotary motion on their axes substantially such as described While revolving about the axis ot the paddle-wheel by means ofan eecentric cog-Wheeleombined with andengaging the coge of pinions on the shafts of the paddles, the form of which pinions is generated, substantially as specified, and for the purpose set forth.

v HARVEY LULL. Witnesses:

WM. I-I. BISHOP, J. J. WRIGHT. 

